Use repository.sonatype.org to Search Central Maven Repository

November 19, 2008 By Tim OBrien

1 minute read time

If you are looking for the easiest way to search for artifacts in the Central Maven Repository, go to http://repository.sonatype.org. Sonatype maintains a publi instance of Nexus that can be used to search for artifacts by GAV (groupId, artifactId, version) coordinates, Class Name, or Checksum. Here's a brief demonstration of the search capabilities on http://repository.sonatype.org.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/2283525[/vimeo]
NOTE: Maximize Video to Full Screen Mode to see Details

If you would like to manage your own instance of Nexus and index your own Hosted repositories, you can download an install Nexus from http://nexus.sonatype.org. If you manage your own instance of Nexus, you can proxy other Maven repositories (including Central) and you will have a place to publish your own organization's artifacts.

When you host a Nexus instance and you proxy a remote repository, Nexus downloads a Nexus repository index, this index is what enables Nexus to quickly search the contents of a Maven repository. Downloading this small repository index is all Nexus needs to do to search the entire repository. For more information about Nexus, see http://nexus.sonatype.org.

Tags: search, Nexus Repo Reel, Everything Open Source, video

Written by Tim OBrien

Tim is a Software Architect with experience in all aspects of software development from project inception to developing scaleable production architectures for large-scale systems during critical, high-risk events such as Black Friday. He has helped many organizations ranging from small startups to Fortune 100 companies take a more strategic approach to adopting and evaluating technology and managing the risks associated with change.